Photo courtesy of Clarence Campeau Development Fund.
A proponent of a new Metis economic development pilot project unveiled this week is hoping it can be expanded within two years.
The Metis Community Capacity Strategy is being funded by the Clarence Campeau Development Fund.
Organizations representing nine Saskatchewan Metis communities signed an MOU in Saskatoon earlier this week.
They include the Northern Village of Beauval, Buffalo Narrows Economic Corporation, Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. (Saskatoon), the Northern Village of Green Lake, Infinity Métis Development Corporation (Archerwill), Kineepik Métis Local (Pinehouse), the Northern Village of La Loche, Prince Albert Métis Women Association, and Sakitawak Development Corporation (Ile a la Crosse).
A total of $4.25 million dollars is available over the next five years to help them with community-level wealth creation.
Strategy director Roland Duplessis says if it is a success early on, they might be able to convince the federal government to contribute.
“We will then expand this as we move forward,” he says. “And I hope it doesn’t take us five years for this thing to kick off and really show us its benefit. We’re hoping that within two years we can start taking a new intake of people and expand this thing in a big way — but we have to get the federal government involved to do that. And this is the pilot we think is going to do that.”
Development corporations, Metis locals and northern municipalities are among the signatories to the MOU.
Duplessis says they had to be careful who they chose for the first intake to make sure there is maximum impact.
“It will take us $70 million to do what we want to do across the province,” he says. “We don’t have $70 million. We’ve got $4.25 million. So we have to be very, very careful that we take the folks that are ready right now to provide the biggest impact for Metis people right now.”
While projects like this might already exist elsewhere in Canada, Duplessis says this is the first specifically geared to the Metis.
“This is the first program ever in Canada specifically developed for Metis and Metis communities,” he says. “It’s the only one ever. One hundred and fifty-some years and this is the first one that’s ever been done like this.”
In addition to the financial component, the Metis organizations that have signed on to the MCCS will receive advisory and business consulting services. Those services range from strategic planning and feasibility studies to training in negotiations, financial statement analysis and website and social media development.
According to a CCDF booklet describing the strategy, “92 per cent of the leaders within Metis community development corporations lack the ability to understand financial statements and are unable to use them as a tool to gauge their organization’s success.”
Strategy funding can provide up to 85 per cent of the cost of a business in repayable and non-repayable capital, up to a maximum of $1 million. The non-repayable portion can be 50 per cent or $300,000 of project costs, whichever is lower.
The CCDF receives approximately $3.5 million a year from the province through gaming revenue, and provides $4.5 million to $5 million annually to entrepreneurs and communities.